Challenge

Most of today’s public & private services are part of a greater, wider array of products, services and stakeholders, who serve the lives of diverse populations and various types and sizes of organizations and companies. Increasingly, the needs of people and the use situations are driving innovation. Products & services are challenged to not only fit into people’s lives, but allow people to reinvent how they participate in the world.

One goal when creating new products, services or experiences is that they should integrate seamlessly into people’s lives. This has great implications for how people are studied and participate in the design process.

 

 

When users get left out

A product developed in a closed process, often doesn’t support the user’s everyday practices but rather disturbs them.

Closed processes have the potential to produce products and services that don’t support people’s goals in their everyday life.

Open processes

In an open process the developers reach out to users to understand their lives better. The developed product supports the users practices.

Opening up development processes to end users can support shaping products that match the needs of users and fit into their lives.

Rythms of people's lives

But opening the process for people to participate is sometimes not enough.

The next step is to appreciate rhythms of peoples’ lives by developing in their context.

Integration

Processes benefit most from collaborative activities, like workshops, when they are integrated into both stakeholders and users rhythms throughout the process.

Integrating, knowledge and input from users’ and stakeholders’ worlds are used as material in creative activities, and any output and result are incorporated back into their work practices.

CONCEPTS WERE DEVELOPEDBY EU FP7 PROJECT UPSIDE
www.upside-project.eu